An operations readiness typology for mitigating against transitional 'disastrous openings' of airport infrastructure projects

This article seeks to highlight the essential readiness factors commonly engaged to prevent ‘disastrous openings’ of complex multi-stakeholder infrastructure projects. To identify these readiness factors, we undertook a survey of 724 Operations managers, Project managers and ‘Operations Readiness, Activation and Transition’ management practitioners working across four international airports in the United Arab Emirates. Data were analysed using SPSS/AMOS. What emerges from the data analysis is a risk-focussed typology of knowledge that is able to prevent past mistakes from being repeated. The main contribution of the article is twofold. First, the article develops a risk-focussed operations readiness typology. The second contribution of the article is the theorization of the risk-focussed typology as abstract risk knowledge. Such knowledge, which emerges from risk forecasting serves to prevent past mistakes from being repeated. We recommend that future studies undertake further theoretical and empirical work on the significance of risk forecasting within the context of knowledge production.